A Conversation with Jen Doyle, Author of CALLED UP (Calling It #2)

First, let me say thank you for having me here. I appreciate your hosting me on the occasion of the publication of CALLED UP (book two in the CALLING IT series). 🙂

You’re welcome! And, welcome 🙂

What 5 things should readers know about you?

* I’ve always been a huge reader, but only became a romance convert about five years ago. But it’s pretty much all I read now.

* I have three children, including two teenagers, who are a bit scandalized that their mom is writing romance. (Well, the 16yo girl is; the 13yo boy is busy catching Pokemon [or whatever is happening there].) The 5yo only cares when I’m on deadline and can’t do the normal bedtime routine.

* I’m a HUGE Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. I still quote lines, even all these years later.

* I have a master’s degree in library and information science.

* I can’t stand the word ‘nipple’ yet I use it fairly often. (The hazards of being a romance writer.)

LOL! My 17yo girl AND 19yo boy are doing the Pokemon thing too…I don’t get it either 😉

Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

CALLED UP is, as you know, the second in the CALLING IT/Inspiration, IA series. The inspiration for the series itself was the character of Nate Hawkins, the celebrity athlete who comes back to his small hometown and finds love. But even in those early days of thinking about Nate, I always knew there was a huge heart lurking underneath a cold and jaded shell. And the character of Angelica “Fitz” Hawkins, who is Nate’s half-sister and the heroine of CALLED UP, was where a lot of that goodness came from. Though they got off to a rough start due to the way she comes into his life when they are both teenagers, the kindness and loyalty he’s shown her since those early days says so much about who he is. So even though CALLING IT was about Nate and Dorie, I had pages upon pages of backstory for the character of Fitz that served as the inspiration for book two.

Fitz isn’t a loner, but thanks to the circumstances of her introduction to Inspiration, she’s also taken advantage of the fact that most of her best friends are guys who have no interest in heart-to-heart conversations. There’s a lot of emotion hidden under her surface and she has no interest in acknowledging it even to herself, much less letting it show. Max “Deke” Deacon, on the other hand is pretty much the opposite. Part of Nate and Fitz’s group of close friends, he’s a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy. When the two characters presented themselves to me and required I write their story, I was quite intrigued.

That’s awesome! I love how things sometimes work out like that.

How long have you been writing, and what (or who) inspired you to start?

I became a writer fifteen years ago. I can actually name the day and time—November 6, 2001 at approximately 8:45 p.m. Remember how I mentioned above that I was a Buffy fan? I’d begun to watch the show when it came on in syndication (because, you know, back in those days, you had to actually wait until something was aired :)) and had avoided watching the season six episodes as they aired. But on November 6, they had their musical episode, and along with the entire rest of the Buffy fandom, I had to see it live. There was a particular character I’d come to love, and realized he hadn’t made it to season six. By about three quarters of the way through the episode, I found myself distracted by wondering what had happened to him. I almost immediately began to search out where he was—and was completely unhappy with the answer. I then came across the world of fan fiction and saw that there were others out there who felt the same and who wrote a different ending. But it wasn’t the ending I wanted, especially because I believed in the canon, which meant I couldn’t conceive of his journey happening differently than what had been laid out on the TV show. With that said, however, I felt pretty strongly that the story didn’t have to end there. So I picked up where his story left off. (I actually did a whole blog post about this. 🙂 See  http://www.jendoyleink.com/2016/08/18/on-becoming-a-writer-another-throwback-thursday-blog-post/ if you’re interested in reading more.)

It wasn’t until December that I began to put words to the page, but I feel like that moment was when the switch turned on for me.

I love it! I may have written fan fiction a time or two myself. For a different fandom, however.

What are you working on right now? What can readers look for from you in the next year?

I’m currently working on the proposal for book three for the series, so hopefully I’ll have news about that soon. I also just recently put out a free short story (Last Call) that serves as an introduction to Inspiration, Iowa. It’s a complete standalone, but Deke makes a cameo appearance. It can be downloaded at: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/HXb8B

This fall I’m also going to post Butterfly Ops, a somewhat epic story (360K words – which is, um, a lot), on Wattpad. It’s the evolution of that first fanfic I wrote, having become quite more polished over time. If you’re on Wattpad, keep an eye out.

Great! Thanks so much for both of those 🙂

If you had to “sell” your book in a single Tweet, what would you say?

Ugh! I am so horrible at this! How about:

Fans of @JillShalvis will love this friends-to-lovers story. Baseball, small town romance and…handcuffs? #CalledUp http://bit.ly/CalledUpAZ

Works for me! You’re better at it than you think!

Actually, I think I might go tweet that now…

🙂

Thank you so much for having me! I hope everyone enjoys CALLED UP and the rest of the CALLING IT series!

Thank you again for coming, Jen!

Keep reading to find out more about Jen and her books.